With 11 minutes, 9 seconds left in the Class LL semifinal between the Wildcats and Staples, half of the team was busy cheering on quarterback Joey Paparelli, who was in the middle of running for 64 yards to set up what proved to be the game-winning score.

The other half of the team, however, was looking down the track that surrounds the West Haven High School football field as a young man, clad in sweat pants and a red shirt, was slowly making his way to the NFA sideline helped along by NFA athletic director Gary Makowicki.

Zach Verley had made it to the game, and as his teammates gathered around him, tears began to stream down his face.

“He’s been our inspiration,” NFA coach Jemal Davis said. “It’s unfortunate he couldn’t be out here, playing for us, but he’s been there in spirit. For the kid to arrive at that moment, that pivotal time, you’re talking about a movie there.”

Verley hasn’t been on the sideline since Thanksgiving Day when, on the opening kickoff, he was coming downfield and was hit by a New London blocker, but still managed to make the tackle.

“I got up and didn’t feel anything. My adrenaline was pumping, and then there was an (official’s) time out or something called,” Verley recalled. “I got into the huddle after that and I started to feel the pain and began to collapse. I got over to the sideline and was telling (NFA trainer) Janeen (Beetle) to let me go back out there, but thank God she didn’t.”

Verley had suffered a lacerated kidney, and Beetle sent him to Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London. There, doctors thought they were going to have to remove the kidney, but before doing so sent him to Yale-New Haven Hospital for further evaluation. Verley has been in the intensive care unit since then, of which he remembers little since he was drifting in and out of consciousness.

“For the first (few) days, I had no clue as to where I was,” Verley said.

He began to come out of it last week. On Wednesday, he sent the team a brief video to pump them up for the state quarterfinal game with Newtown. He was up and moving by Friday, and begged the physical therapist to let him attend Sunday’s game in West Haven. Just moments after he was released, he was at the football game.

Page 2 of 2 -
Verley even went through the line, shaking hands with the Staples players at the end of the game, with help from his friend, Marcus Outlow.

“He’s been one of my closest friends since I got to Connecticut from Philadelphia,” Outlow said. “He’s been there for me and seeing him back here, being here for the team, I just wanted to go over there and help him and tell him that this one was for him.”